De Klerk and De Allende return for Springboks

South Africa’s head coach Allister Coetzee has named a Springbok team with two changes to his side to play New Zealand’s All Blacks in the Rugby Championship in Durban.

Faf de Klerk and Damian de Allende both return to the side following injuries to Rudy Paige and Jesse Kriel respectively.

Paige suffered concussion in last week’s victory over Australia while Kriel has been ruled out with a groin injury.

In a positional change in midfield, Juan de Jongh moves from inside to outside centre, with De Allende now wearing the No 12 jersey. The two wings, Bryan Habana and Francois Hougaard, will swap jerseys for this Test.

The rest of the match-day squad was kept unchanged from the line-up that defeated the Wallabies by 18-10 last Saturday. “Unfortunately for Rudy, he will not have completed his gradual return to play protocol by this weekend, which gives Faf another opportunity in the No 9 jersey,” said Springbok coach, Allister Coetzee.

He added: “Damian should slot in well next to Juan de Jongh in the midfield as they play together for their Super Rugby franchise.” According to Coetzee, the bench made a very good impact against the Wallabies: “I expect them to do a similar job this coming weekend. Furthermore, our set-piece have functioned very well and I am hoping for the same against a very good defensive lineout and scrum from the All Blacks.

“The All Blacks will be a huge Test, they are number one side in the world and they have great form at the moment. We are playing at home and the boys are looking forward to the encounter against the world’s best team.

“It is important for us to end the campaign with a good performance against a very good All Blacks side. What I would like to see is that that we keep on improving as a team and build on our continuity and converting more of our opportunities into points.”

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